David stood in the garden with the crystal cold in his hand and his father's words echoing in his head and the feeling that something was pulling him somewhere he'd never been but always known. Elena was watching him with the same expression she'd worn since he came out of the vision, worry and hope and something that looked like fear all mixed together.
"What did he tell you?" she asked. "What did you see?"
David looked at the crystal, at the light that had faded now, at the thing that had been waiting for him since before he was born. "He said there's another place. A place the Phoenix Clan kept its oldest secrets. The egg was there once, before they moved it to the vault. And he left something there for me. Something that will tell me who was behind the attack."
Elena's face went very still. "Where is it?"
"That's the thing." David looked up at the sky, at the sun that was climbing over the estate walls, at the clouds that were moving slowly across the blue. "He said I already know. That I've always known. The same way I knew where to find the vault, the same way I knew how to hide the egg."
Lucas had come out of the house at some point, Becca behind him, Kaito leaning on his cane near the door. They were all watching him, waiting for him to tell them what came next, waiting for him to lead them somewhere they'd never been.
"So where is it?" Lucas asked. "The place you've always known?"
David closed his eyes and tried to feel it. The same way he'd felt the vault calling to him across the Expanse, the same way he'd felt the egg waiting for him in the mountain, the same way he'd felt his father's presence in the crystal. It was there, somewhere, a pull that had been with him his whole life, a direction he'd been walking toward without knowing it.
"North," he said, opening his eyes. "Out of the city, past the old districts, past the walls. Somewhere I used to dream about when I was a kid. A place with a river and a tree and something buried underneath it."
Becca moved closer. "The old Phoenix grounds. Before the clan fell, before the city expanded, they had land north of the city. A compound, my grandmother called it. Where the clan leaders lived before the system came."
David looked at her. "You know it?"
"I know of it. No one's been there in years. After the Phoenix Clan fell, the land was abandoned. The city grew around it, past it, left it behind. There's nothing there now. Just ruins and old stories."
"There's something there." David's voice was steady. "Something my father left for me. Something that's been waiting for me to find it."
Kaito pushed off from the doorframe, moved toward them with his slow careful steps. "If your father left something there, if it's been hidden all these years, the Vane family doesn't know about it. Chen doesn't know about it. If they did, they would have found it by now."
David nodded slowly. "That's what my father said. He didn't put it in the vault. He didn't tell anyone. He left it somewhere only I could find it." He looked at the crystal in his hand, at the thing that had been waiting for him since before he could walk. "The same way he left the vault for me to find when I was ready."
Lucas stepped forward, his face set in the expression he got when he'd decided something and wasn't going to change his mind. "Then we go. Today. Before anyone else figures out what you're looking for."
Erica had appeared from somewhere, as she always did, her bow on her back, her eyes already scanning the gardens for threats that probably weren't there. "The Vane family has people everywhere. If we leave the city, if we go north, they'll know. They'll follow."
Becca looked at her grandmother's house, at the windows where David could see faces watching, at the estate that had become something like a home in the weeks since he'd first walked through its gates. "Then we don't let them follow. We move fast, we move quiet, and we don't tell anyone where we're going."
Kaito laughed, a soft sound that turned into a cough. "You sound like our grandmother."
Becca's lips twitched. "I learned from the best."
---
The grandmother was not happy about the plan.
She sat in her chair in the main hall, her hands on her walking stick, her eyes moving from David to Becca to Elena to Lucas to Erica and back to David. "You want to go north, to the old Phoenix grounds, to find something your father left behind eighteen years ago. You want to do this now, today, without telling anyone where you're going, without any backup, without any idea of what you're going to find."
"That's the plan," David said.
The grandmother stared at him for a long moment. "You're going to get yourselves killed."
"We're going to find out who killed my parents. We're going to find out who's been hunting us for eighteen years. And then we're going to make sure they never hurt anyone again." David met her eyes. "That's what my father would have wanted. That's what my mother would have wanted. That's what I'm going to do."
The grandmother was quiet for a moment, something shifting in her expression, something that might have been pride or grief or the knowledge that she couldn't stop him. "Your mother was the same way. Stubborn. Brave. Impossible to reason with when she'd made up her mind." She shook her head slowly. "Go. Find what your father left behind. But come back, David Ashborn. Come back to us."
David nodded. "I will."
---
They left an hour later, the same car that had brought them from the city, the same driver who never spoke, the same route that led north instead of south. Lucas was pressed against the window, watching the buildings thin out, the streets widen, the city fall away behind them. Becca was on her phone, talking to someone in low tones, making arrangements for when they came back. Erica was in the front seat, her eyes on the road, her bow across her lap. Elena was beside David, the file she'd been carrying for years in her hands, her face turned toward the north like she could see what was waiting for them.
"You've been here before," David said. "To the old grounds."
Elena shook her head. "My father never brought me. He didn't talk about the Phoenix Clan, didn't talk about what happened, didn't talk about anything that happened before I was born. I had to find out on my own. I had to piece it together from old records, old photographs, old stories people told when they thought no one was listening."
"But you know where we're going."
"I know where the compound was. I know what it looked like before it fell. I know what your grandmother told Becca, what Kaito found in the old records, what my father tried to burn." She looked at him. "I've been trying to find this place my whole life, David. I just didn't know it until now."
The car slowed, the road narrowing, the buildings disappearing, the land opening up into fields and trees and the river David had seen in his dreams. He leaned forward, his hand on the window, his heart beating faster.
"There," he said. "Stop there."
The car pulled off the road, onto a path that was barely there, grass growing through the cracks, trees pressing in on both sides. The driver killed the engine and they sat there for a moment, the silence heavy around them, the place that David had been dreaming about his whole life waiting for them somewhere in the trees.
Lucas was the first one out, his feet hitting the ground, his eyes scanning the forest like he expected something to jump out at them. "This is it? This is the place?"
David climbed out after him, the crystal warm in his pocket, the pull he'd felt his whole life stronger now, pulling him forward, pulling him toward something he'd been looking for since before he could walk.
"Something like that."
They walked. Through the trees, past the river, through a gate that was barely standing, rusted and falling apart, the symbol of the Phoenix Clan still visible on its surface. The compound was in ruins, buildings fallen in, walls crumbling, nothing left of the place where his parents had lived and worked and dreamed of the future.
But David kept walking, kept following the pull, kept moving toward something he couldn't see but knew was there.
The tree was at the center of the compound, old and massive, its branches spreading out like it had been growing there for centuries. David stopped in front of it, his hand reaching out, his fingers touching the bark, feeling something underneath it, something buried, something waiting.
"It's here," he said. "What my father left behind. It's here."
Elena moved up beside him, her face pale, her hands shaking. "Under the tree?"
"Under the tree." David pulled his hand back, looked at the others. "We need to dig."
They found tools in the ruins, shovels and picks that had been left behind, rusted but still usable. Lucas did most of the work, his size and strength making it easier, his hands steady even when the others had to stop. Becca and Erica kept watch, their eyes on the forest, their weapons ready. Elena stood beside David, her hand on his arm, her face turned toward the tree.
It took them an hour to find it. A box, smaller than the one that had held the crystal, older than anything they'd found yet, covered in symbols that matched the necklace around David's neck, the journal in his pack, the crystal in his pocket.
David knelt beside it, his hands on the lid, his heart beating too fast. "This is it. This is what he left for me."
Elena knelt beside him. "Open it."
He opened it.
Inside was a journal, older than his father's, the pages yellowed, the handwriting different. A woman's handwriting, careful and precise, the handwriting of someone who had been writing for a very long time.
"This was your mother's," Elena said, her voice barely a whisper. "This was Seraphina's."
David picked up the journal, held it in his hands, felt the weight of it, the weight of everything his mother had left behind. He opened it to the first page, read the words written there, read the words his mother had written for him before he was born.
My name is Seraphina Ashborn. I am the leader of the Phoenix Clan, the keeper of its secrets, the protector of its legacy. And if you're reading this, David, my son, then I am gone and the world is more dangerous than I hoped it would be.
I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't be there to see you grow up. I'm sorry I couldn't watch you become the person I know you'll be. I'm sorry for all the things I wanted to tell you, all the things I wanted to teach you, all the things I wanted to share with you.
But I'm not sorry for the time we had. For the months I carried you, for the nights I held you, for the mornings I watched you sleep. You were the best thing I ever did, David. You were the best thing I ever was.
And I need you to know that. I need you to know that whatever happens, whatever you find, whatever you become, you were loved. You were wanted. You were the best part of me and your father and everything we ever hoped for.
Now I need you to be brave. I need you to be strong. I need you to find out who killed us and make sure they never hurt anyone else.
There are names in this journal. Names of the people who betrayed us, who helped them, who've been hunting our legacy since before you were born. Some of them you know. Some of them you don't. But all of them need to pay for what they did.
Find them, David. Find them and make them pay. Not for me. Not for your father. For yourself. For the family you never got to have. For the future you deserve.
I love you. I've always loved you. I'll always love you.
Your mother,
Seraphina Ashborn
David closed the journal, held it against his chest, felt the tears on his face he hadn't known were there. Elena was beside him, her hand on his back, her face wet too. Lucas was standing behind them, his hands on his hips, his face turned away. Becca was watching the forest, her shoulders tight, her shadows moving at her feet. Erica was somewhere in the trees, giving them the space they needed.
"She loved you," Elena said. "She loved you so much."
David nodded, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything except hold the journal and feel the weight of everything his mother had left behind.